HAPPENINGS...

Querida Familia!

It's been a busy week and has sped by pretty quickly. I'm going to just make a list of what has happened. I've found that lists are easiest when letter-writing. If it's annoying, tell me, and I won't do it next time.

1) This Thanksgiving, the five of us Elders ate dinner at the Noriega family's house. They had a big hispanic Thanksgiving, with all their family over. It was all in Spanish, and only a few of the people there even talked to us. We were fed a lot though. I got to try Champura for the first time. I loved it. [I also love to have Mate at the McCue's house--she's Chilean] So it kind of felt like I was intruding on someone's holiday.

2) We baptized big Raymond Hartman on Saturday the 27th. Both Elder Glenn and Elder Bowen got in the font to baptize him. I got to confirm him on Sunday. It was nerve-wracking without a microphone [since no one can ever hear me]. But he had tears in his eyes throughout the baptism (at which, I spoke on baptism and the Holy Ghost) and also on Sunday. We're super happy for him. I'll try going on another computer to send photos. But you'll see that he's wearing his "cranberries"... you'll see.

3) I found a house whose number is 1023! It's a sign, right?! [For those of you who don't know, I always see the clock at 10:23 somehow] Well we've tried three times and no one ever is home or opens the door. I don't want to give up though..

4) We are teaching a guy named Ramon. We found him while tracting. He was out walking. He said he'd been waiting for missionaries to one day show up at his door. He'd been way into drugs, but had quit two weeks ago. He'd been praying for some way to know which church he should go to. He wanted to change his life. And then he found us. He's been reading the Book of Mormon, the little pamphlets we gave him (on the Restoration and Plan of Salvation), came to church this Sunday, went to Ray's baptism, set his OWN date for Christmas to be baptized, and is perfectly honest in intention. He's prayed to know this is all true and really got the answer, the feelings of his heart and thoughts of his mind, that it IS true. So awesome. He blows me away everytime we see him with how well he understands things. I'm so impressed by him.

5) We met a little girl who'd shaved her eyebrow off. HAHA Siblings, get why that's hilarious?

6) Then I accidentally shaved off my sideburn... HAHA what?

7) Last Monday was Pie Night at the Everett's house. They baked a bunch of pies. They wanted me to bake one too, but of course I don't have my recipe book. And dad wasn't online (since he had work off). There is one on Max's laptop, but it's too late now. SWEET POTATOE PIE was DELICIOUS. MMMMmmmm

8) The day after Thanksgiving, we had Thanksgiving leftovers at the Arnejo's house. As we left, I accidentally broke their bench that three of us had been sitting on. "It's okay Elder Poirier, it was just an ANTIQUE!" they joked. So embarrassing.

 

I'm out of time!!!! Sorry LOVE YOU

 

ELDER POIRIER



22 months to go...

Dear Family!

I'd send photos, but this computer I'm using doesn't allow me to connect anything to it. Who sent me the photo key chain? The young women or you guys? It's neat. I really appreciate all the mail I've been getting from everyone. I can't believe today marks TWO MONTHS out on my mission. Crazy! I really want to be in the MTC for Thanksgiving, but I'm not thinking it'll happen :( I'm kind of sad that I won't be home for Thanksgiving). You are all having so much fun at home, so that makes me happy. This week was a little harder for us. We at first had a huge success where we set FOUR baptismal dates, but since that day we have not been able to teach those people again! It's so frustrating. We keep praying that somehow it'll work out. Details in my letter home. This week, because of our lack of success, Elder Glenn and Elder Bowen proved to be a bit more moody. We all got in little tiffs occasionally. Fortunately for me, that is how Tucson was, so I wasn't at all discouraged. But I had to learn to let them plan the day because it seems that planning is what's always causing the arguments. So I'm trying to hold all my opinions back, even that of beach vs. mountains. I want to focus on getting along again. And we have the past couple of days. I really do want to just get to the MTC though and then on to MEXICO.

Well, Harry Potter came out.. Thanks Max for the details! Twenty two months until i get to see it!!! There's not much more for me to say. I enjoy my studies. I enjoy the weather. I like my compys. I get mail. Everything's great! I'll only be sad to leave Kassia though. I want to get on another computer to send photos. Anyway, I do miss you all and hope that you have a Happy Thanksgiving! I wanted to list a few things I'm grateful for. But let me just say that because of my transfer to MTC/Mexico and the whole Christmas back up (with packages), please don't send me any packages for Christmas. There's nothing that I really need. I really do appreciate the thought, but it would stink for it to get lost in the mail or something. I might though be sending a package home full of the letters i've received and things i don't want to take to mexico. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

 

Love, Elder Mitchell Poirier

 

THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR:

1) For my family of course. I love you all so much. We have so many good memories. I look forward to eternity with you all!

2) My call as a missionary and for the opportunity I have to bring people the joy I have in my life.

3) Water. I love the beach, the pool, etc. And I miss being able to swim

4) The prophet. I especially love rereading his talk on gratitude.

5) My friends! Thanks for writing me!

6) My dogs. I wish Bentley could sleep next to me at night.

7) Books. I really miss just reading books.

 

(random) but true. i'm grateful for a lot!



My First Baptism

 

 "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

   And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me! "

D&C 18: 15-16

Kassia's Day

Erika and her family

Dear Family!!!

  I love it here in Douglas!! One, it's been really cold!! We are always wearing our suits now. And our apartment has only one little heater in the bathroom. So we wake up FREEZING. But I found a blanket somewhere to go with my sheet haha. Now we're fine. We close our bedroom door, leave the bathroom one open, and let the heater heat our room. I bought candy cane hot chocolate packets today so that it will feel like Christmas. I hope I'm in Mexico for Christmas though. Two, I get along pretty well with my companions. It's definitely not so lonely with three of us. We have some really good conversations. Last night we were up until 12:30 in bed all talking about Beach vs. Mountains. It was 2 vs 1 (not fair, Utard and Udaho). But Elder Glenn was a shy, studious kid. Elder Bowen was a trouble-maker autoshop kind of kid. We are all pretty different, as I consider myself a scientist, pie-maker, Harry Potter fan. It's really fun here together. Three, I get to use Spanish all the time!! We went to a mexican family's home for dinner and had spaghetti and pizza. Have you ever heard of that? It's really good! I love mexican food now! ahaha what? I was confused. But we did go to a Chilean family's home for dessert one day. We got mate!! It burned my tongue really badly! She was from some city in the south, on the coast that started with a V. Four, it's really old here. All the buildings are really antique. It's so cool. We're going to a town called "Old Bisbee" today after lunch. You should look it up on google images or something. It's a little town set in the mountains. It's really colorful and kind of European. I'm excited to go.

We bike and drive. There are five of us in one ward, so the city is split in half for us. The best part though is that it's flat, so biking isn't hard. Unfortunately that leaves no excuse for my fall. My hand got all cut up, pretty deep too. It was embarrassing. But my scabby right hand kind of plays a role in my next story:

 I GOT A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!

We were teaching three, unrelated people who all were set to be baptized on November 12th. Rae Marie is an old grandma who loves to finish your sentences and say "Gimminee Crickets!" or however you spell it. Michael (or Miguelito) is 42 or so and very short. He's really nice and was SO excited to be baptized. It really impresses me when people actually want to really know if this gospel is true. Because then they get a real answer. Erika is a single mom of three kids: Kassia, Erik, and Leyla. She'd been taking lessons for YEARS, but had her doubts. (She even thought that if she was baptized, the bishop was going to ask her to marry someone ahha). Finally she decided to keep her baptism date. Well, we'd been going to teach them all week, preparing them for their baptism, when two days before the baptismal service, Kassia asks us if she can get baptized too. She's eight. So yes!! We were so excited. I'd talked to her a bit. She's really sweet and very quiet. The day before the baptism we asked her who she wanted to baptize her. Immediately she pointed to me!!!! I was SO excited!! Let me tell you, it was one of the most special experiences of my life: so humbling and happy. I relate to D&C 18:15-16 so much more. I cannot really express how happy I am for her, and how honored I feel that I was able to baptize her. The other day she gave me one of her stuffed animals as a thank you. It was the lion from the movie "Madagascar". Wondering where my scabby hand comes in? Uh, duh, when I baptized her! I had it all wrapped up (for those of you who don't know, I had to raise my right hand to the square).

LOVE YOU ALL!!! KEEP WRITING ME!!!

Love, Elder Mitchell Poirier.

PS

My address is the same.

                               More Walls                                 

Look Ma, No hands

My first mission injury---clumsy!

 

TRANSFERRED!

Dearest Family!

  I got transferred!! Now I'm in Douglas, Arizona, spanish-speaking, right on the border of Mexico. My two companions are Elder Glenn (as new as I am and pretty cool) and Elder Bowen (so far all he's told me is that I have a lot of stuff and will probably be here for a lot longer than I hope). Because of transfers occurring today, I didn't get my Pday yesterday. It's today. And also, my mail was put on hold until I got here. So hopefully I'll get a lot of letters this week. I won't be writing many today. It's pretty depressing without mail :( I seriously can't wait to get back to the MTC and on to Mexico. So this past week was pretty neat. We met a woman who's husband just passed away. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation. She really felt the spirit. It was a powerful lesson. Also, Josh and Heather are doing well, minus the car accident they got into yesterday! That was a sad goodbye (at the hospital of course). I hope that the next missionaries in that area are really cool and hard-working. I know how much the Gospel can bless all these families. Also, on Saturday we had several appointments from 1PM to the end of the night, all of which made us eat. Well. Of course. I had to vomit at that last home. I went to the bathroom and puked. They heard me of course. SO embarrassing. But very funny. When we left their home, I told them, "it was a pleasure... using your toilet!" Aye aye aye. Elder Ricks and I ended on a good note. He was super annoying and talked too much, but he was an obedient, diligent, enthusiastic missionary. It was a good experience overall. I really do just want to get out of Arizona though. Douglas is a small town. I wonder what it has to offer. I'm getting used to being a missionary. Again, it's a lot of hard work. I'm really being humbled. I again ask for your encouragement. I can't wait to call you from the airport!

  So how is home? How's Nana doing? How's November been? I feel like it's been forever since I've heard from you all! Thanks for the Greenie Package!!! And I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

 

Love, Elder Mitchell Poirier

Jesús es el Cristo

HELLO FAMILY!!

My heart goes out to you all! I miss you a ton. Things here are pretty good. We've found a lot of potential investigators. On Saturday I had the opportunity to give out four copies of the Book of Mormon. We are teaching a few people. I hope that we can set a few baptismal dates this week. We'd be setting them for the 4th of December. Although I'd love to baptize people, I really hope I'm gone by then. This week I treated Elder Ricks to icecream from an icecream truck three times. First I got a Double Screwball, which is the cone with two gumballs at the bottom (reminded me of being a kid, we'd have to wait until after dinner to eat it). Then I got a Spiderman and a Spongebob. MMmm. And since it's been pretty hot here in the afternoons, we sit in the shade and eat them. Basically, we've done a lot of tracting and street-contacting. We've been pretty busy. Saturday, Elder Ricks exchanged with Elder Neilson. So I spent the day in charge basically since Elder Neilson didn't know the area. He'd served a year and 5 months in Spain. But his visa expired and couldn't get renewed. That STINKS. But anyway, I did all the planning and leading. It was awesome. It felt so natural. And I had confidence in teaching people and going up to talk to EVERYONE. Actually everyone. I'm a leader, not a follower. That's one thing I need to work on though, is following a leader. Elder Ricks is annoyed that I disagree with most things he decides. I don't do it on purpose. I need to work on patience too. Anyway, besides that, the highlight of the week was the Halloween party and Halloween night. The party was fun. There were A LOT of little kids. It was good for our investigators to meet members. And I'm sure their kids had a blast. We saw a lot of cool costumes: Phineaus and Ferb (disney channel), a Lego guy, Glinda from the Wizard of Oz, and a few other cool ones. Halloween night we had to be safe in our apt at 6 PM. Then we planned for the week. Then we played with play-doh for an hour. It was fun i guess. I can't wait to go back to the MTC. Oh yeah, sad story. Adriana (our investigator) dumped us. She actually said, when we stopped by, "I'm glad you guys came. I have something to tell you." She'd been anti-ed. So sad. That was the week in a nutshell. Elder Ricks leaves for home in 9 days! Crazy! It makes me think of how great that day will be for me in 23 months! Well, I love you all!!!! Keep the letters coming, because when I'm in Mexico, I won't be getting them!!

Love,

Elder Mitchell Poirier

 Elder Ricks and I cooling off after eating ice cream

My Missionary Tan

BIKING!!!

 Play-Doh time!

                                                      Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Elder Neilsen and I with our investigators at the Ward Halloween party

Write me:

Arizona Tucson Mission

1840 E. River Rd. Suite 102

Tucson, AZ 85718

Los misioneros de tiempo completo, más de 52.000, sirven en 340 misiones en todo el mundo. Son siervos creyentes y dedicados del Señor. Su objetivo es “invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo a fin de que reciban el Evangelio restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y Su expiación, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepción del don del Espíritu Santo y el perseverar hasta el fin”~Elder Nelson